An Extra £40 Per Night — The Price Of Being Single On Holiday
03 February 2020It's official — single people are being screwed over by hotels. We find the worst offenders and dish the dirt. Plus — advice on how to beat the hotels' price hikes.
Singletons get a raw deal sometimes. And one of those times is on holiday. vouchercloud examined the average price of double and single rooms in different cities on Trivago. What we found was shocking news for the solo traveller...
Single rooms were an average of £40.23 per night more expensive than half of a double. Per person, this means that solo rooms are an average of 83.12% more expensive than travelling in a couple. But it gets worse - some cities overcharge singletons by as much as 106% of what they would pay as part of a double!
Worst offender: Madrid is top of the list
The city to rip off singles the most is Madrid, whose single rooms are 106.11% more expensive than half the average double. Your share of a double would be £76.81 per night, whilst a single room fetches a huge £158.31 per night. This means, on average, single rooms are more expensive than doubles.
This is likely due to a premium on space and single rooms being more readily available in upmarket hotels than in budget ones - whereas those travelling in a couple have choices in a range of hotels. Take a bow, Madrid. Single travellers may just aswell book a double and enjoy the extra space!
Further guilty parties: Valletta and Dublin
Valletta (Malta) and Dublin (Ireland, obvs) came 2nd and 3rd with single rooms costing over 98% more than half a double in each.
Valletta’s single rooms are 99.42% more than half their doubles, whilst Dublin’s aren’t much better at 98.89% more. The shame!
Equality in Scandinavia
Though expensive, Scandinavian countries treat solo travellers more equally than most, with Reykjavik, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen all at the bottom end of the rip-off cities.
Stockholm is the second fairest city in its pricing for singles (who are charged 72.5% more for a single room than half a double), whilst Reykjavik (72.71%), Oslo (76.10%) and Copenhagen (77.33%) all featured in the 10 fairest cities across the continent.
Go solo in Sarajevo
The fairest price city for solo travellers is Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Here, single hotel rooms are an average of 66.13% more expensive than one half of a double.
Sarajevo provides great value accommodation whether you’re staying as a one or a two, but it’s also proportionally the very fairest in its pricing of single and double rooms. Doubles cost £58.57 per night on average, whilst singles are priced at a mere £48.65 per night. That’s a gap of 66.13% between what an individual would pay for a single and their share of a double. Still significant, but the least markup you’ll find in a European hotel.
Airbnb — the fairest of them all
Airbnb provides much better value for solo travellers — if you’re choosing Airbnb, the average markup for singles is £31.57 per night, comparing favourably with hotels charging singles £40.23 more per night
vouchercloud compared Airbnb prices in singles and doubles and found that, whilst there is a greater average % single premium (87.95%), Airbnb’s lower average prices mean that solo travellers are fined less in £s for having a single room than they would in a hotel. At £31.57, the average relative nightly premium is just under £9 less than that of a hotel - enough for a pint or two of the local beer to get into the swing of things.
See here for our full Airbnb data:
Comment
Greg le Tocq, vouchercloud founder, said:
“It’s well known that a single room is more expensive per person than a double, but we were astonished to see just how big the difference was. We were also surprised at how things varied city by city, and how some cities’ single rooms cost the same as their doubles!
It just goes to show that travelling solo can be an expensive pursuit, but hopefully solo travellers can use this information to select their next destination and save a bit of money!”
Get travelling
If you can't stomach the ferocious price-hike of travelling solo, head to our travel and accommodation vouchers page to find vouchers and discounts on your favourite destinations. You'll find discounts with Groupon, First Choice, Booking.com and more!
Methodology
vouchercloud used the website Trivago to calculate hotel prices. We used the first 75 hotel prices on 3-5 star accommodation, sorted by recommendation and booked for 21st - 28th February week, with bookings made week beginning 20th January.
Airbnb prices were taken from the site’s own calculations for the above dates, as searched for on the above week.
